The message at the funeral from family and religious leaders was one of forgiveness, not vengeance. But as emotions ran high, none shied away from spelling out the sudden way Yatim’s life had ended as they demanded justice.

Inside, the chapel was packed with more than 150 mourners dressed in black, who spread into an overflow room. Several young people, including Yatim’s sister, wore black t-shirts printed with “9 shots...?” and Yatim’s smiling black and white yearbook photo.

“I never got to tell you how much you meant to me or that you were the best brother,” his sister, Sarah Yatim, told mourners, reading from a poem she’d written. “He was the only person I felt safe with ... Sammy was and still is my hero.”

Sarah said her brother, who always made her laugh and whose green sparkly eyes she envied, wasn’t the first to die this way. But she expressed hope he would be the last.

She finished with a request to stop grieving and called for action: “Please everybody, let’s be strong.”

Yatim’s mother, Sahar Bahadi, sat next to the open casket, weeping, as Sarah laid bouquets of flowers on her brother’s chest.

His friends remembered Yatim as a “sweetheart” whose smile was contagious.

The Syriac Orthodox priest, Father Estephanos Issa, said the family does not blame the Toronto police for their son being “brutally attacked” as he held a “Swiss knife,” nor did they speak rage against the officer in the days after the shooting.

“We have not come to seek revenge . . . They wanted to know the truth,” he said. “They surrender to the justice and they do trust that Canada is a land of justice, is a land of peace.”

He spoke of Yatim as a dedicated student, athlete and musician — the son of a management consultant and a pediatrician who were respected in Syria and abroad. He liked to paint, play basketball and guitar. When Yatim moved from Aleppo four years ago, Issa said, friends carried him on their shoulders as he left for the airport.

Earlier this week, Forcillo, a 14 Division officer with six years on the force, was suspended with pay as the investigation continues.

Issa had a message also for the officers still on the streets.

“As they carry on their duties, may they do that faithfully, compassionately, valuing life,” the priest said.

Outside the funeral home, emotions erupted as some mourners clashed with members of the media.

Family friend Joseph Nazar said Yatim’s mother was so devastated Wednesday she had barely been able to stand. But on Thursday she rose and followed behind her son.

“She wanted to walk with her son to the last step before they take him,” Nazar said. “She just said in Arabic, “Habibi” — my love. And that’s what she was saying all the time.”